


Then Beggars Would Ride

by ciaan



Category: CW Network RPF, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Genie/Djinn, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Episode: s02e20 What Is and What Should Never Be, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Not A Hunter, Pre-Foursome, Wishes, happyverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-21
Updated: 2011-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-26 09:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/281602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciaan/pseuds/ciaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And they all lived happily ever after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Then Beggars Would Ride

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU of the djinn wishverse from episode 2.20, What Is And What Should Never Be. I call it the happyverse which of course means I had a creepy meta explanation for it when I created it. This is one of those fics I wrote years and years ago, got beta comments on from buffyspazz and B, and then never finished revising or posted. anaraine just inspired me to dig it up, look at it again, and finally put it online.

Carmen meets him when she rolls into the garage to get her brakes fixed and walks out with the phone number of the hot mechanic who spends the whole time trying not to seem like he's staring at her. Most of her friends say she's crazy, that Dean isn't good enough for her. He never went to college, he comes home covered in grease and dirt, he makes less money than she does, he loves his car an inordinate amount, and his favorite pastimes include watching cheesy old monster movies, shooting pool with his buddies at the bar, and going 'fishing' by the river on sunny days, a sport that involves a lot of beer and never any fish.

But Dean is more than that. It's not just that he's devastatingly handsome, good in bed, and makes her laugh. It's that Carmen soon finds out he always comes through for her, no matter what. On their second date, after an evening of footsie and teasing looks in the fancy restaurant, he holds her and lets her cry on his shoulder when they get back to her apartment to find her cat Yeti run over in the street, holds her and doesn't try to cop a feel or make any blue-balled complaints. After a hard shift in the emergency room, when she comes home sad and angry, he rubs her back and compliments her. He's great with kids, he washes the dishes, he loves his car an endearing amount, and he leaves the toilet seat down. Oh, and did she mention that he's devastatingly handsome, good in bed, and makes her laugh?

It doesn't take her long at all to fall in love with him.

.

Carmen pays close attention when Dean introduces her to his best friend, Jared. You can learn a lot about a guy by examining his friends and she wants to know all about Dean. Dean is generous and giving, but he isn't always good with people, and Jared is. He's tall and handsome, outgoing and happy and friendly to everyone, and if he sometimes lets his pals get away with bad stuff because he insists on thinking the best of them, he's not a jerk himself and knows how to put everyone at ease. He's like a bouncy ball and a megawatt lightbulb and a precocious puppy all rolled into one.

Jared trains and handles cadaver dogs who work with the police to sniff out human remains. It sounds macabre at first, but when he starts to talk about the families who finally know the truth after weeks, months, years, how they can finally truly grieve and find justice, Carmen starts to see how it's all about helping people, how it's similar to what she does at the hospital.

Jared has a girlfriend, too. Sandy is gorgeous, super sweet, smart, and practical, and has a great wardrobe. At first she seems quiet and shy compared to Jared, but Carmen soon comes to suspect that he has to work hard to keep up with her energy. She's a therapist who helps abused and at-risk children.

It isn't until a few weeks later that Carmen learns Dean and Sandy actually dated for a little while in high school. Sandy was one of the popular cheerleaders, and Dean and Jared were more of out-crowd weirdos. After that little fling, Sandy didn't see them again for years, until she and Jared ran into each other and became the cutest couple Carmen has ever known.

.

Twice a year, on his dad's birthday and the anniversary of his death, Dean and his mother Mary go to visit John's grave. John died of a heart attack a few years ago, and Carmen never met him. They also do the same thing for Sammy. Sammy was Dean's little brother, who died of SIDS after just a few months, when Dean was four. The first time he takes her along, Dean and Mary stand by the little headstone talking aimlessly of how it could have been, and Carmen is silent. She thinks it's so sad, the eternal baby, the everlasting what-if.

As soon as they get in the car and Carmen pulls out of the cemetery parking lot, Dean gets out his cell and calls Jared. Jared babbles on about whatever random stuff with Dean throwing in only the barest interjections. Carmen watches as he shifts from sad to happy again over the course of the conversation.

Jared is like Dean's brother, more than just a friend. Carmen knows how they swore to each other with pricked fingers when they were in middle school. She knows about the times they experimented together as teenagers, the time more recently when they were with the same woman together for a night. She just hopes that someday she can know Dean even half as well, that someday she can be the one to unfailingly put a smile on his face.

When she was a kid, Carmen's dad was in the army, and they moved around a lot, all over the US and Europe. She has an older sister and a younger brother. She never thought she'd end up in some place like Lawrence, Kansas, staying put, but that's where she got a job when she graduated, and she's still paying off her loans.

Dean's got roots here, lived his whole life here, doesn't want to leave his family. His mom would be alone; and you can't pack up graves. Carmen's resigned to it. It would be fine if they could just afford to travel more often.

.

After just a few months a house comes up for rent on the block where Jared and Sandy live. Dean wants it so bad and Carmen moves in with him there. She knows everyone else thinks they're going too fast, but she's happy.

The next week, while Dean's at work, she's home alone, washing the dishes, and something under the sink just explodes, spraying water everywhere. She shrieks, drops the sponge, dives to grab the pipe and hold it back. She's just realizing, with water spraying right in her face, how futile this is, and that she needs to leave it, go down to the basement and turn the water off, staunch the flow at the source, when someone knocks on the back door.

"Help," she yells. Jared shoves the door open and comes racing in.

"Oh, shit," he exclaims, diving down beside her.

Carmen lets go, climbing to her feet as he grabs at the pipe. "Basement," she says. "Shutting it off." Then she goes and does exactly that, returning to Jared wringing out his shirt. Carmen grabs a towel to wipe her face. They're both completely soaked.

"I'm not sure what's broken," he says.

"Dean'll fix it when he gets back." Carmen hands him the towel.

They dry off and he helps her mop up the floor. He tells her about the case he's working on, she tells him about the hospital, they talk about basketball some. She and Sandy do girl's night out now while the guys hang, but this is the longest conversation she's ever had alone with Jared.

"You know," he says, setting down the mop, "you're cool. You're good for him." He grins mischievously. "You're allowed to keep dating him."

Carmen arches an eyebrow. "Oh? Well, you're cool, too, and good for him. You're allowed to keep being his friend."

Jared laughs, slings an arm around her shoulders. "Awesome. Thanks." She smiles up at him.

.

On their first anniversary, Dean brings her breakfast in bed. Carmen wakes up to him setting a tray beside her. He kisses her on the forehead. The breakfast is simple, pancakes and strawberries, but at least it's something Dean actually knows how to cook. They eat together, feeding each other little bites.

Afterward, Carmen slips into the closet, emerges wearing new lacy red lingerie. Dean sits up and whistles at her.

"I bought these for you," she smiles, "but then I thought maybe I should wear them myself."

"They look much better on you than they would on me." She settles down on his lap, and he wraps his hands around her hips, long fingers curling into her skin. "But they'd probably look pretty good on the floor, too." Carmen kisses him and never wants to stop.

.

"Could they be any dorkier?" Sandy asks, and Carmen shakes her head. Jared has just started singing 'Rubber Ducky' and Dean joins him, head-banging along as he strums his guitar. It's very obvious why their garage band in high school never made them stars.

The tomatoes shimmer in the bright sunlight as Carmen slices them, precise surgical cuts creating thin red circles. It's a lovely summer day, sky brilliant with a few puffs of cloud, the sun and air warm with a light breeze keeping it from getting too hot. The guys are waiting for the grill to get just right, and Carmen and Sandy are finishing up the rest of the toppings.

"Rubber Ducky, you're the only fucking one!" Jared carols out, cracking up, slapping his hand against his thigh and throwing his head back, smiling at the clouds. Dean grins, and Carmen's heart goes pitter-pat all over again, seeing him happy and handsome as he picks up his beer, rolling the bottle against his neck before taking a sip. Next to Carmen, Sandy giggles.

Carmen helps Sandy take the dishes and leftovers back inside, once they're done, and they peer out the kitchen window when they hear shouts. The guys are using two huge super-soaker water guns to hose down the grill, and after a moment they turn the blasts of water on each other, racing around with Jared's two dogs barking and lapping at their heels, drenching themselves in some fake war.

"I got some, too, while Jared wasn't looking," Sandy says, a finger over her lips, laughter sparkling in her hazel eyes. "Let's ambush them!" They sneak around the side of the house and pounce.

At the end they're all soaked. Jared grabs Sandy up, twirling her around light as a feather, the both of them laughing. Dean hugs Carmen, whispers in her ear that he thinks she should win the wet t-shirt contest, and she smiles and kisses his neck. Sandy shrieks and Jared stumbles into them, all four of them tumbling to the ground in a tangle, and Carmen gets an elbow in the ribs and then Dean's mouth on hers as Jared and Sandy roll away over the grass.

.

Jared and Sandy are supposed to come over for dinner that night, and they show up a little late, looking strangely excited. Jared is practically bouncing up and down on his toes, and Sandy's eyes are glittering, cheeks pink from the cold, her smile threatening to split her face open.

Once they get inside and are taking their coats off Sandy just holds out her left hand and Carmen sees the diamond sparkling on her ring finger. She shrieks, and Sandy hugs her, her coat tangling up between them. Dean slaps Jared on the back, the two of them almost toppling over from the force of their bearhug.

"That's gorgeous!" Carmen coos, because it's huge, and so pretty.

Dean scoops Sandy up, kissing her on each cheek. "So you finally made an honest man out of him." He sets her down lightly. "You're still going to let him out to play sometimes, right?"

Glancing up at Jared through her eyelashes, Sandy smirks. "I guess I can't keep him chained up in my basement all the time." Jared slings his arm over her shoulder. Everyone laughs.

Leaning forward, Dean whispers into Sandy's ear, and Carmen only barely catches it. "Take good care of my boy. Make sure he's happy." Sandy nods. Dean's grin is just like Jared's, honest and broad, with nothing merely reflected about it. Carmen snuggles into his side and Dean's arm settles around her waist in a tight grip.

"Y'all do know you're the best man and maid of honor, right?" Jared says.

.

Later that evening they're all settled on the sofa watching bad horror movies. Dean and Sandy love these things. Carmen isn't so into them. Jared keeps piping up, as usual, to mention how inaccurate certain parts are, and he's always right. Watching someone get their hand through a meat grinder just isn't fun when you've seen the same kind of thing in real life and know how awful it is. After a while Carmen escapes into the kitchen to make more popcorn and Jared follows her.

"Rough time at work?" he asks, laying the backs of his fingers on her cheek. Carmen nods and spends a while telling him about some recent patients, listening to him talk about some of the stuff he's seen lately, all over the country. Dean always listens to her, too, is always sweet to her, but he doesn't understand in the same way, hasn't experienced it.

After the popcorn is made and half-eaten they take it into the living room. Dean's sprawled across a large section of the couch, the way he likes it, with Sandy's head in his lap. He's petting her hair and they're both laughing at someone being mauled by a werewolf. Jared drops down on Dean's right, on the other side from Sandy, crowding himself into the narrow space by Dean's hip. Carmen stands there, holding the popcorn bowl, not seeing any more room and uncertain what to do. Sandy curls her legs up and Carmen sits down, her lap suddenly full of Sandy's denim-covered calves and bare feet.

Jared throws his arm over Dean's shoulders. "Dean, it's good that you wouldn't do anything to my woman I wouldn't approve of. Or at least I know she'd enjoy it." Dean chuckles while Sandy smacks Jared's thigh. He leans down to kiss her, their chins pointing in opposite directions, and Carmen sees tongue.

Watching them kiss with their heads in Dean's crotch, Carmen thinks, not for the first time, that Dean has had some kind of sex with everyone on this couch. She realizes, finally, that she's tired of thinking of them as his and wants them to be hers as well, connected in the same ways. She doesn't want to be just a fourth wheel on their tricycle. Dean's hers, and she's his, and she's not going to be the outsider here. She plans on sticking around. She's going to be his mother's daughter, and his children's mother, and his buddy's girl, all of it.

It's not really actions that get to her, it's time. Jared and Dean have known each other for sixteen years, and Carmen can barely comprehend that, has no friendships she can compare it to. She knows she'll never catch up: when she and Dean have their fifteenth anniversary, the guys will be at thirty years. She'll never have been there then for all the things and people of the past they can talk about.

What she can do is be here now. If she had time to think she probably wouldn't do it, but she doesn't think, and as Jared starts to sit up, Carmen leans in to him. He doesn't hesitate, just opens his mouth to her, his lips already spit-damp and soft. Jared kisses her gently but thoroughly, his tongue everywhere. Dean's hand rests on her back. After a few moments Sandy grips the front of Carmen's shirt, tugs her down so their breasts press together and kisses her, hot and insistent. Carmen hears rustling above her, feels Dean's legs shifting like a little earthquake under Sandy's body. The two of them break apart and glance up.

Jared and Dean are kissing, clutching each other's faces, Jared pressing Dean back against the couch. Carmen sits up. She and Sandy exchange a glance and Carmen knows they're thinking the same thing. Dean's expression is like someone who can finally breathe again after choking.

"Dean," Jared whispers, fierce and desperate, his lips still moving against Dean's mouth, his eyes closed tight.

"It's okay, dude," Dean whispers back. His fingers are clenched in Jared's hair. He slowly lets go, and Jared leans back, breathing heavily. Sandy reaches up and Dean nuzzles her palm, softly, almost apologetically, until she turns her face and kisses his stomach, biting at his t-shirt. Jared settles his head on Dean's shoulder, his hand slipping around to brush Carmen's arm. She smiles at him, lacing her arm through his behind Dean, her other hand resting on the curve of Sandy's side. Sandy clasps Jared's other hand, giggling as Dean smirks and stretches his arms out to both sides along the back of the sofa, preening himself as he embraces Carmen and Jared.

Everyone stares at the TV for a few moments, watching or at least pretending to watch the car chase onscreen. Then Carmen tilts her head and begins to suck at Dean's earlobe. He shivers in response. She smiles against his skin as both he and Jared begin to stroke their fingers in matching circles on her arms and Sandy stretches her legs.

Yeah, she's here now, and he's always going to be hers.


End file.
